[*][*] Root fibrous; leaves thin. (Stems 1–3° high.)
2. V. sylvática, Banks. Smooth or minutely pubescent; root-leaves ovate or oblong, entire, rarely with 2 small lobes; stem-leaves pinnate, with 3–11 oblong-ovate or lanceolate nearly entire leaflets; cyme at first close, many-flowered; corolla inversely conical (3´´ long, rose-color or white).—Wet ground, Newf. to southern N. Y., N. Mich., westward and northward. June.
3. V. pauciflòra, Michx. Smooth, slender, surculose; root-leaves ovate, heart-shaped, toothed, pointed, sometimes with 2 small lateral divisions; stem-leaves pinnate, with 3–7 ovate toothed leaflets; branches of the panicled cyme few-flowered; tube of the (pale pink) corolla long and slender (½´ long).—Woods and alluvial banks, Penn. to S. Ill., Mo., and Tenn. June.
2. VALERIANÉLLA, Tourn. Corn Salad. Lamb-Lettuce.
Limb of the calyx obsolete or merely toothed. Corolla funnel-form, equally or unequally 5-lobed. Stamens 3, rarely 2. Fruit 3-celled, two of the cells empty and sometimes confluent into one, the other 1-seeded.—Annuals and biennials, usually smooth, with forking stems, tender and rather succulent leaves (entire or cut-lobed towards the base), and white or whitish cymose-clustered and bracted small flowers.—Our species all have the limb of the calyx obsolete, and are so much alike in aspect, flowers, etc., that good characters are only to be taken from the fruit. They all have a rather short corolla, the limb of which is nearly regular. (Name a diminutive of Valeriana.)
[*] Corolla bluish; fruit with a corky mass at the back of the fertile cell.
V. olitòria, Poll. Fruit flattish, obliquely rhomboidal; empty cells as large as the fertile, contiguous, the thin partition at length breaking up.—Old fields, N. Y. to Penn. and La. (Nat. from Eu.)
[*][*] Corolla white; no corky mass behind the fertile cell.
[+] Fertile cell broader than the empty ones; cross-section of fruit triangular.
1. V. chenopodifòlia, DC. Stems with long internodes and few forks; glomerate cymes few, slender-peduncled; bracts broadly lanceolate; fruit glabrous or pubescent, 2´´ long. (Fedia Fagopyrum, Torr. & Gray.)—Moist grounds, western N. Y. to Minn., south to Va. and Ky.